Emotional victory for Savings & Loans rider 18 months after emerging from coma
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The large bunch that formed at the front of the race around the 30km mark.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Tim Decker struck gear trouble during the race and rode into Warrnambool using the one gear.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
The lead group split canola fields on their way to Warrnambool.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
How many bike riders does it take to (l-r): Will Dickeson, Joel Pearson and Ashley Baines.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Tom Leaper made it into the lead group early into the 261km classic.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
The lead group pass through Camperdown with around seventy kilometres to the finish.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
(l-r): Rhys Pollock (Drapac Porsche), Kristian House (Rapha Condor), and Jai Crawford (Savings and Loans) were trying to bridge the 12 minute gap to the lead group.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Current British road champion, Kristian House (Rapha Condor), and Rhys Pollock (Drapac Porsche) were two of the early race fancies that missed the break.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
David Tanner (Rock Racing) was another rider to miss the break that split the race apart during the opening thirty kilometres.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Riders climb their way out of Camperdown on their way to Warrnambool.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
The lead group had dropped a few by the time they had reached Terang with around thirty kilometres remaining.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Adam Murchie (centre) of Drapac Porsche found himself in the lead group that stole the show from the peloton early into the one-day classic.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
A Mars a day helps you ride the Melbourne to Warrnambool one-day classic.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
The lead group had buttered-up the peloton and was milking their gap for all it was worth approaching Warrnambool.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Joel Pearson (Savings and Loans) was the man to beat in the sprint and didn't disappoint his fans.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
An elated Joel Pearson (Savings and Loans) takes out the 2009 Melbourne to Warrnambool one-day classic.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Up-beat: Race winner Joel Pearson's (Savings and Loans) heartbeat had slowed down on the podium after it would have been banging like a drum in the sprint to the line.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Kirsty Broun was the first lady across the line in the Melbourne to Warrnambool one-day classic.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
David Tozer won the award for being the first rider from Warrnambool across the line.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Riders leave the Werribee racetrack at 7.30am bound for Warrnambool, 261 kilometres and around six hours away.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Almost 200 hundred riders left the startline in Werribee bound for Warrnambool. (Image credit: Shane Goss)
Mobile musettes: Chris Steffanoni (Cycle-City) had some helpers on the run at a feed-zone in Inverleigh.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
The lead group pass some more canola fields with a 15 minute break on the peloton.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
David Pell (Savings and Loans) and Rhys Pollock (Drapac Porsche), climb their way out the back of Camperdown in the chase group.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Podium spray (l-r): Daniel Furmston (2nd), Joel Pearson (1st), and Tim Decker (3rd) release the champers in Warrnambool.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Snapper spray: Race winner Joel Pearson (Savings and Loans) finds a happy way to get rid of some champagne - drown a photographer!(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Two-time Melbourne to Warrnambool winner Jamie Drew (right) presents David Kemp, Hayden Brooks and Scott Davis of Fly V Australia with the National Road Series trophy for best team overall.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Joel Pearson took an emotional victory in the 114th edition of the Melbourne to Warrnambool Cycling Classic on Saturday. The 25-year-old Savings & Loans rider claimed his victory after he spent almost 250 of the race's 261 kilometre course in a breakaway group. He was able to hold off fellow escapees Daniel Furmston (Praties) and 2007 Champion Tim Decker (Titans Race 2) in the final sprint for the line.
For Pearson, the victory was affirmation of his recovery from a serious car accident in France last year, which had left in a coma for several weeks. Although he still suffers from the effects of the accident, any indication of those handicaps were well hidden today as he took an emphatic win in the worlds second oldest cycling race.
An early escape
While race organisers had reduced the length of this year's race by approximately 40 kilometres citing rider safety, there remained an imposing 261 kilometre course for the field.
Despite the almost six and a half hour journey ahead of them, it took just 10 kilometres for the race winning break to emerge from the main group. An escape of 22 riders, including Pearson, snuck away from the peloton and wouldn't be seen again until the finish in Warrnambool.
The escape group coordinated to ensure their success, but as the finale approached, it was Pearson who found himself in the box seat. His teammates worked to ensure he would be well placed for the final sprint.
With 250 kilometres beneath their wheels, Pearson's Savings & Loans teammate Will Dickeson came to the front of the group to temper the enthusiasm of any potential late-race attacks. A little over ten kilometres later, Dickeson was on hand to watch Pearson throw an emotional punch into the air as he sprinted to victory ahead of Furmston and Decker.
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Queenslander Kirsty Broun was the first woman home, completing the course in 6:55:25.
As riders celebrated on the road in the early kilometres of stage 21 ominous signs mounted around the pro-Palestine protest lined barriers of the final circuit
